In a small rural
village in Chechnya, eight-year-old Havaa watches from the woods as
Russian soldiers abduct her father in the middle of the night and then
set fire to her home. When their lifelong neighbor Akhmed finds Havaa
hiding in the forest with a strange blue suitcase, he makes a decision
that will forever change their lives. He will seek refuge at the
abandoned hospital where the sole remaining doctor, Sonja Rabina, treats
the wounded.

For Sonja, the arrival of Akhmed and Havaa is an
unwelcome surprise. Weary and overburdened, she has no desire to take on
additional risk and responsibility. But over the course of five
extraordinary days, Sonja’s world will shift on its axis and reveal the
intricate pattern of connections that weaves together the pasts of these
three unlikely companions and unexpectedly decides their fate. A story
of the transcendent power of love in wartime, A Constellation of Vital Phenomenais a work of sweeping breadth, profound compassion, and lasting significance.

My final word: This is one of those rare and uncommon novels that you come across every now and again. Provocative and riveting, it is a beautifully written story with well-developed characters that you can really care about. A lyrical and intelligent tale of war-torn Chechnya, I found myself moved. I feared for the safety of those in danger, was sickened by the brutality and indifference, and yearned for the security of all. In the end, I found this to be a hard-hitting novel that is soft in all the right places.

The Soul of an Octopus by Sy MontgomeryIn this astonishing book from the author of the bestselling memoir The Good Good Pig,
Sy Montgomery explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus'
surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature: and the
remarkable connections it makes with humans.

Sy Montgomery's popular 2011 Orionmagazine piece, "Deep Intellect"; about her friendship with a
sensitive, sweet-natured octopus named Athena and the grief she felt at
her death, went viral, indicating the widespread fascination with these
mysterious, almost alien-like creatures. Since then Sy has practiced
true immersion journalism, from New England aquarium tanks to the reefs
of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, pursuing these wild,
solitary shape-shifters. Octopuses have varied personalities and
intelligence they show in myriad ways: endless trickery to escape
enclosures and get food; jetting water playfully to bounce objects like
balls; and evading caretakers by using a scoop net as a trampoline and
running around the floor on eight arms. But with a beak like a parrot,
venom like a snake, and a tongue covered with teeth, how can such a
being know anything? And what sort of thoughts could it think?

The
intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees was only recently accepted
by scientists, who now are establishing the intelligence of the
octopus, watching them solve problems and deciphering the meaning of
their color-changing camouflage techniques. Montgomery chronicles this
growing appreciation of the octopus, but also tells a love story. By
turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopusreveals what octopuses can teach us about consciousness and the meeting of two very different minds.

My final word: The author successfully shows that
octopuses are so much more than what we typically think. Their behavior
is sometimes reminiscent of a pet dog, seeking human interaction and
their tactile natures touching and tasting their human companions. The
author succeeded in affecting me, and not only making me recommit to
never eating octopus or their cousin the squid, but it made me begin to
doubt my ability to continue to eat seafood at all. The consciousness of
even fish like grouper is phenomenal and at times unsettling. Tender
and amusing stories of starfish and anemones had me shaking my head in
amazement. I adored this book, and it left me yearning to make the
acquaintance of an octopus, envious of others who have been so blessed.

Greg Iles continues the
electrifying story begun in his smash New York Times bestseller Natchez
Burning in this highly anticipated second installment of an epic trilogy
of blood and race, family and justice, featuring Southern lawyer Penn
Cage.

Former prosecutor Penn Cage and his fiancee, reporter and
publisher Caitlin Masters, have barely escaped with their lives after
being attacked by wealthy businessman Brody Royal and his Double Eagles,
a KKK sect with ties to some of Mississippi's most powerful men. But
the real danger has only begun as FBI Special Agent John Kaiser warns
Penn that Brody wasn't the true leader of the Double Eagles. The
puppeteer who actually controls the terrorist group is a man far more
fearsome: the chief of the state police's Criminal Investigations
Bureau, Forrest Knox.

The only way Penn can save his father, Dr.
Tom Cage--who is fleeing a murder charge as well as corrupt cops bent on
killing him--is either to make a devil's bargain with Knox or destroy
him. While Penn desperately pursues both options, Caitlin uncovers the
real story behind a series of unsolved civil rights murders that may
hold the key to the Double Eagles' downfall. The trail leads her deep
into the past, into the black backwaters of the Mississippi River, to a
secret killing ground used by slave owners and the Klan for over two
hundred years . . . a place of terrifying evil known only as "the bone
tree."

The Bone Tree is an explosive, action-packed thriller full
of twisting intrigue and deadly secrets, a tale that explores the
conflicts and casualties that result when the darkest truths of American
history come to light. It puts us inside the skin of a noble man who
has always fought for justice--now finally pushed beyond his limits.

Just how far will Penn Cage, the hero we thought we knew, go to protect those he loves?

Hardcover, 816 pagesPublished April 21st 2015 by William Morrow & Company (first published April 9th 2015)ISBN 0062311115 (ISBN13: 9780062311115)

My final word: After Natchez Burning, and now The Bone Tree,
I'll read anything by Greg Iles! He holds my interest every moment--
and that isn't an easy thing to do! He is one of the few authors who can
make me eager to read an 800 page novel! If you like crime dramas,
historical fiction centered around the civil rights era, and books about
the deep south, dive into this one with both feet. Greg Iles knows how
to weave a great yarn!

There are good recipes and there are great ones—and then, there are genius recipes.
Genius recipes surprise us and make us rethink the way we cook. They
might involve an unexpectedly simple technique, debunk a kitchen myth,
or apply a familiar ingredient in a new way. They’re handed down by
luminaries of the food world and become their legacies. And, once we’ve
folded them into our repertoires, they make us feel pretty genius too.
In this collection are 100 of the smartest and most remarkable ones.

There isn’t yet a single cookbook where you can find Marcella Hazan’s
Tomato Sauce with Onion and Butter, Jim Lahey’s No-Knead Bread, and
Nigella Lawson’s Dense Chocolate Loaf Cake—plus dozens more of the most
talked about, just-crazy-enough-to-work recipes of our time. Until now.

These are what Food52 Executive Editor Kristen Miglore calls genius
recipes. Passed down from the cookbook authors, chefs, and bloggers who
made them legendary, these foolproof recipes rethink cooking tropes,
solve problems, get us talking, and make cooking more fun. Every week,
Kristen features one such recipe and explains just what’s so brilliant
about it in the James Beard Award-nominated Genius Recipes column on
Food52. Here, in this book, she compiles 100 of the most essential
ones—nearly half of which have never been featured in the column—with
tips, riffs, mini-recipes, and stunning photographs from James Ransom,
to create a cooking canon that will stand the test of time.

Once you try Michael Ruhlman’s fried chicken or Yotam Ottolenghi and
Sami Tamimi’s hummus, you’ll never want to go back to other versions.
But there’s also a surprising ginger juice you didn’t realize you were
missing and will want to put on everything—and a way to cook white
chocolate that (finally) exposes its hidden glory. Some of these recipes
you’ll follow to a T, but others will be jumping-off points for you to
experiment with and make your own. Either way, with Kristen at the helm,
revealing and explaining the genius of each recipe, Genius Recipes
is destined to become every home cook’s go-to resource for smart,
memorable cooking—because no one cook could have taught us so much.

My final word:The book offers up recipes that
include "genius" techniques and twists you may not have thought of. For
example, mashing up onions and cilantro into a paste, and folding that
into mashed avocado for a smooth guacamole. Or cooking a whole chicken
at super high heat with no basting to create a really juicy and
delectable meal. Some things may seem contrary to what you would expect,
but the results speak for themselves. Food52 knows how to do cookbooks right!

From a bright new talent
comes this debut novel about a young woman who travels for the first
time to her mother’s hometown, and gets sucked into the mystery that
changed her family forever

Mattie Wallace has really screwed up
this time. Broke and knocked up, she’s got all her worldly possessions
crammed into six giant trash bags, and nowhere to go. Try as she might,
Mattie can no longer deny that she really is turning into her mother, a
broken alcoholic who never met a bad choice she didn’t make.

When
Mattie gets news of a possible inheritance left by a grandmother she’s
never met, she jumps at this one last chance to turn things around.
Leaving the Florida Panhandle, she drives eight hundred miles to her
mother’s birthplace—the tiny town of Gandy, Oklahoma. There, she soon
learns that her mother remains a local mystery—a happy, talented
teenager who inexplicably skipped town thirty-five years ago with
nothing but the clothes on her back. But the girl they describe bears
little resemblance to the damaged woman Mattie knew, and before long it
becomes clear that something terrible happened to her mother, and it
happened here. The harder Mattie digs for answers, the more obstacles
she encounters. Giving up, however, isn’t an option. Uncovering what
started her mother’s downward spiral might be the only way to stop her
own.

Hilarious, gripping, and unexpectedly wise, The Art of Crash Landing is a poignant novel from an assured new voice.

My final word: I enjoyed the writing. It was a playful and
fast read with colorful characters. The author does a good job of
building the story and providing
well-developed characters. It is told first-person, with flashbacks
providing insight into Mattie's past. The author succeeds in creating a
severely flawed and screwed up character in Mattie, while she is able to
keep her likable and
sympathetic. The banter is fun, and counter-balanced with some deeply
emotional and revealing moments. I really liked this story, and the
author's writing style!

Carolyn's
not so different from the other human beings around her. She's sure of
it. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a
phone. She even remembers what clothes are for.

After all, she was a normal American herself, once.

That
was a long time ago, of course—before the time she calls “adoption
day,” when she and a dozen other children found themselves being raised
by a man they learned to call Father.

Father could do strange
things. He could call light from darkness. Sometimes he raised the dead.
And when he was disobeyed, the consequences were terrible.

In
the years since Father took her in, Carolyn hasn't gotten out much.
Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to
Father's ancient Pelapi customs. They've studied the books in his
library and learned some of the secrets behind his equally ancient
power.

My final word: I was initially nervous about my choice to
read this book, but by chapter four it started to get under my skin.
Little by little things came together, and I began to see the big
picture. It became more engrossing as time went on, and I was really
impressed with the writer's ability to captivate and draw me in. I'll
still be hesitant to read fantasy and sci-fi, as I still think it is a
shaky genre for me, but this author has definitely won me over!

My final word: This book is graphic
and filled with disturbing images, but I found it really suspenseful.
It kept me on the edge of my seat, wondering what was coming down the
pike next. The author is very readable, the characters well-developed,
the storyline provocative. I really, really enjoyed this story, and that
feels a little "wrong", given how violent the story was, but I just
can't help it. The story could get a little preposterous at times and
requires some "suspension of disbelief" to get through it, but it is
really a great escape if you like mystery and suspense, and you aren't
put off by graphic violence of a sexual nature. I'd give two thumbs up,
if it weren't for the thumbscrews and shackles!

Carrying Albert Home by Homer HickamBig Fish meets The Notebook
in this emotionally evocative story about a man, a woman, and an
alligator that is a moving tribute to love, from the author of the
award-winning memoir Rocket Boys—the basis of the movie October Sky

Elsie
Lavender and Homer Hickam (the father of the author) were high school
classmates in the West Virginia coalfields, graduating just as the Great
Depression began. When Homer asked for her hand, Elsie instead headed
to Orlando where she sparked with a dancing actor named Buddy Ebsen
(yes, that Buddy Ebsen). But when Buddy headed for New York, Elsie’s
dreams of a life with him were crushed and eventually she found herself
back in the coalfields, married to Homer.

Unfulfilled as a
miner’s wife, Elsie was reminded of her carefree days with Buddy every
day because of his unusual wedding gift: an alligator named Albert she
raised in the only bathroom in the house. When Albert scared Homer by
grabbing his pants, he gave Elsie an ultimatum: “Me or that alligator!”
After giving it some thought, Elsie concluded there was only one thing
to do: Carry Albert home.

Carrying Albert Home is the
funny, sweet, and sometimes tragic tale of a young couple and a special
alligator on a crazy 1000-mile adventure. Told with the warmth and
down-home charm that made Rocket Boys/October Sky a beloved
bestseller, Homer Hickam’s rollicking tale is ultimately a testament to
that strange and marvelous emotion we inadequately call love.

My final word: Clever, curious, and colorful, this story keeps you guessing. You never
really know how much truth lies in it, but you get the feeling that
there may have been a fair bit of truth, dressed up to make it a little
fancier and bigger than life. Elsie can be a bit off-putting much of the
time, but then she redeems herself with some tender moment, kind
gesture, or humorous quip. And I found myself continually rooting for
Homer in his quest to make her happy. Just a man, his wife, her
alligator and a rooster on a road trip. What more could you ask for? I
can almost hear Albert happily expressing yeah-yeah-yeah.

From a remarkable new voice in Southern fiction, a multigenerational saga of crime, family, and vengeance.

Clayton
Burroughs comes from a long line of outlaws. For generations, the
Burroughs clan has made its home on Bull Mountain in North Georgia,
running shine, pot, and meth over six state lines, virtually untouched
by the rule of law. To distance himself from his family’s criminal
empire, Clayton took the job of sheriff in a neighboring community to
keep what peace he can. But when a federal agent with the Bureau of
Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms shows up at Clayton’s office with a plan
to shut down the mountain, his hidden agenda will pit brother against
brother, test loyalties, and could lead Clayton down a path to
self-destruction.

In a sweeping narrative spanning decades and
told from alternating points of view, the novel brilliantly evokes the
atmosphere of the mountain and its inhabitants: forbidding, loyal,
gritty, and ruthless. A story of family—the lengths men will go to
protect it, honor it, or in some cases destroy it—Bull Mountain is an incredibly assured debut that heralds a major new talent in fiction.

My final word: Clayton is the hero you can root for, and
it's hard to feel too bad for his kith and kin as their livelihoods are
threatened. Clayton's wife Kate is admirable and sympathetic, having
battled with Clayton's demons for years. There is a nice twist or two in
the story to keep things interesting. I really loved the author's
writing, and I was already a fan of the subject material (I love
southern lit and stories about Appalachian mountain families and the
like). The jumping back and forth between different perspectives and
time periods can be tricky to navigate, but you settle into the format
and it does get easier as the story goes on. There is nice tension and
suspense, a couple of twists and turns, some colorful characters with
some very good character development. However one area I felt it fell
short was in the character development of Agent Holly.

A wonderfully unique
and unexpected collection of desserts that showcase spice over sugar,
with 80 recipes that both reinvent classic sweets and introduce more
unusual spice-infused desserts.

In Sugar and Spice, veteran food
editor and recipe developer Samantha Seneviratne invites readers to
explore a bold new world of spice-centric desserts. Each chapter centers
on a different spice--some familiar, like vanilla, cinnamon, and
ginger; others less expected (especially in sweet preparations), such as
peppercorns, chiles, and cardamom. With fascinating histories, origin
stories, and innovative uses for each spice, this book will inspire
readers to rediscover and re-stock their spice drawers, and raise their
desserts up to a whole new level of flavor.Hardcover, 240 pagesPublished September 8th 2015 by Ten Speed PressISBN 1607747464 (ISBN13: 9781607747468)

My final word: I was so
excited to open this book for the first time. It looks and feels high
quality. There is beautiful photography throughout to entice you,
charming stories shared by the author. The recipes are easy-to-follow
and have some pretty common ingredients that should be easy to come by. I
love complex flavors and textures, and this cookbook is right up my
alley! This isn’t just a cookbook. It’s a memoir and world travelogue of
the palate.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

When they were too
impoverished to raise their families, ancient Sumerians sold their
children into bondage. Slave women in Rome faced never-ending household
drudgery. The ninth-century Zanj were transported from East Africa to
work the salt marshes of Iraq. Cotton pickers worked under terrible
duress in the American South.

Ancient history? Tragically, no. In
our time, slavery wears many faces. James Kofi Annan's parents in Ghana
sold him because they could not feed him. Beatrice Fernando had to work
almost around the clock in Lebanon. Julia Gabriel was trafficked from
Arizona to the cucumber fields of South Carolina.

Five Thousand Years of Slavery
provides the suspense and emotional engagement of a great novel. It is
an excellent resource with its comprehensive historical narrative,
firsthand accounts, maps, archival photos, paintings and posters, an
index, and suggestions for further reading. Much more than a reference
work, it is a brilliant exploration of the worst - and the best - in
human society.

MARJORIE GANN, an educator for
thirty years, has written language arts curricula, review articles on
children's literature, and sat on the jury for the Canadian Jewish Book
Awards. She lives in Toronto with her husband and has two grown
children.JANET WILLEN has been a writer
and editor for more than thirty years, working on publications ranging
from remedial writing curricula to articles on health and safety. She
holds a master's degree in political philosophy from the New School for
Social Research. Janet Willen lives in Silver Spring, Maryland, with her
husband.

My Thoughts

Francis felt honored and excited. His mother was sending him to the marketplace to sell hard-cooked eggs and peanuts, with only the older village children to watch out for him. Francis was seven years old, but he knew his mother was giving him a big responsibility...

This book explores the long and dreary, yet fascinating, history of slavery. It begins in biblical times and continues through to present day.

There are interesting tidbits and stories, like the fact that the infamous Julius Caesar was once captured at 25 years of age by pirates. His captors demanded money for his freedom, and he laughingly offered even more money than demanded, and sent his men to obtain the funds. While waiting for his men to return, he partied and socialized with the pirates, and when things got tense and he was ridiculed by the pirates, he would threaten them with hanging when he was released. And, true to his word, once his ransom was paid and he was released, he captured the pirates and had them crucified.

Slavery has existed for five thousand years. It existed in Christianity, Judaism and Islam alike. The impact of the slave industry on Africa is staggering.

From 1450 to 1900 the slave trade robbed Africa of its workers, warfare
and slave raids accelerated, and at least twelve million human beings
were shipped away to the Americas.

And while white American men wrote of equality for all, they still supported slavery.

He [Patrick Henry] said that every thinking honest man opposed slavery
in principle, but not in practice. When colonists spoke about the
equality of men, they were not thinking of blacks or of women. They
meant that they wanted the same rights as men of their rank in Britain.

This book is filled with fascinating details, such as the fact that thousands of years ago, slavers were required to list character flaws that would indicate "passion" in a slave, such as "an extreme interest in religion, the arts, or love".

And some slavers went beyond common cruelty. The Tupinamba people were a contradictory people. While treating their slaves well and even making them part of the family, there was always a cloud of doom hanging over the slaves head:

Even though some slaves lived with their masters for years, every slave knew what was coming: death in a horrible religious ritual.

Until that day, the Tupinamba tried to keep their slaves healthy and happy, and at times even found wives for the men. But they could also be very cruel: they tied ropes around their slave's necks, decorated with one bead for each month the slaves had left to live.

The sacrifice ritual lasted several days. First, they teased the slave by letting him or her try to escape. When they caught the victims, which they always did, they performed an elaborate ritual that included dancing and singing. They decorated the slave and chose one Tupinamba to club the slave to death. Afterward, the body was dismembered and roasted, and the victim's flesh was eaten. The heads of the victims were displayed on poles.

You may think that slavery ended long ago in the US with the Emancipation Proclamation, but that would be quite far from the truth. Sharecroppers were often little more than glorified slaves, and even in the 1920s, our own US government practiced a form of slavery with the Aleut people in Alaska.

We take it for granted that government employees get paid in money, and that they have other benefits too. But the Aleuts were not paid in cash, and they certainly didn’t receive benefits. Instead, they were given credit at the government store-- the only place to buy food-- and not only was the food expensive, but the shelves were often nearly empty, so there was hardly anything to buy.

From offices in faraway Washington, D.C., the government controlled the Aleuts’ daily lives. They were not allowed to leave the islands without permission. They were not allowed to speak their native language. Their chiefs were not allowed to have any say in how they were governed. Men were told when they could marry. Until 1924, they were not even allowed US citizenship.

And even today, products listed “Made in China” are often created in forced-labor camps in China, where those suffering religious persecution are being imprisoned.

My final word: This was a rather fascinating read about the history of slavery, in all its shameful truth. Fairly and honestly presented, it's a concise and very readable accounting, filled with photography and stories. Disturbing and strangely alluring, I would recommend this book for anyone wishing to have a better grasp of slavery and its impact on the world.

The Cerebral Girl is a forty-something blogger just digging her way out from under a mountain of books in the deep south of Florida.I received a copy of this book to review through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers, in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

At the heart of The Husband’s Secret is a letter that’s not meant to be read

My darling Cecilia, if you’re reading this, then I’ve died...

Imagine
that your husband wrote you a letter, to be opened after his death.
Imagine, too, that the letter contains his deepest, darkest
secret—something with the potential to destroy not just the life you
built together, but the lives of others as well. Imagine, then, that you
stumble across that letter while your husband is still very much alive.
. . .Cecilia Fitzpatrick has achieved it all—she’s an incredibly
successful businesswoman, a pillar of her small community, and a devoted
wife and mother. Her life is as orderly and spotless as her home. But
that letter is about to change everything, and not just for her: Rachel
and Tess barely know Cecilia—or each other—but they too are about to
feel the earth-shattering repercussions of her husband’s secret.

Acclaimed
author Liane Moriarty has written a gripping, thought-provoking novel
about how well it is really possible to know our spouses—and,
ultimately, ourselves.

Liane was born on a beautiful
November day in 1966 in Sydney. A few hours after she was born, she
smiled directly at her father through the nursery glass window, which is
remarkable, seeing as most babies can’t even focus their eyes at that
age.

Her first word was ‘glug’. This was faithfully recorded in
the baby book kept by her mother. (As the eldest of six children, Liane
was the only one to get a baby book so she likes to refer to it often.)

As
a child, she loved to read, so much so that school friends would
cruelly hide their books when she came to play. She still doesn’t know
how to go to sleep at night without first reading a novel for a very
long time in a very hot bath.

She can’t remember the first story
she ever wrote, but she does remember her first publishing deal. Her
father ‘commissioned’ her to write a novel for him and paid her an
advance of $1.00. She wrote a three volume epic called, ‘The Mystery of
Dead Man’s Island’

After leaving school, Liane began a career in
advertising and marketing. She became quite corporate for a while and
wore suits and worried a lot about the size of her office. She
eventually left her position as marketing manager of a legal publishing
company to run her own (not especially successful) business called The
Little Ad Agency. After that she worked as (a more successful,
thankfully) freelance advertising copywriter, writing everything from
websites and TV commercials to the back of the Sultana Bran box.

She
also wrote short stories and many first chapters of novels that didn’t
go any further. The problem was that she didn’t actually believe that
real people had novels published. Then one day she found out that they
did, when her younger sister Jaclyn Moriarty called to say that her (brilliant, hilarious, award-winning) novel, Feeling Sorry for Celia was about to be published.

In a fever of sibling rivalry, Liane rushed to the computer and wrote a
children’s book called The Animal Olympics, which went on to be
enthusiastically rejected by every publisher in Australia.

She
calmed down and enrolled in a Masters degree at Macquarie University in
Sydney. As part of that degree, she wrote her first novel, Three Wishes.
It was accepted by the lovely people at Pan Macmillan and went on to be
published around the world. (Her latest books are published by the
equally lovely people at Penguin in both the US and the UK)

Since then she has written two more novels for adults, as well as a series of books for children.

Liane
is now a full-time author. She lives in Sydney with her husband, her
new baby daughter Anna, and her son George, who likes to sit on her lap
while she works, helpfully smashing his fist against the keyboard and
suggesting that she might prefer to be watching the Wiggles instead.

Once
upon a time she went heli-skiing and skydiving* and scuba diving. These
days she goes to the park and ‘Gymbaroo’ and sings ‘I’m a Little Cuckoo
Clock’ at swimming lessons. She has discovered that the adrenaline
burst you experience from jumping out of a plane is remarkably similar
to the one you get when your toddler makes a run for it in a busy car
park.

A small town. One wife confronted with the end of her marriage, another confronted by a husband's deep secret. Another reminisces about her marriage before her husband's death years earlier and the loss of their daughter.

My final word: I just don't know what it was about this book. I liked the concept, the characters were okay, development was okay-- but there was just something about it that I found a little boring and maybe a little slow. I initially had trouble keeping track of the characters. I could keep track of the three main women, but when they would start out talking about other characters, it would take me a minute to figure out which woman those characters were associated with, in order to understand whose perspective we were following this chapter. Overall the book was "okay to good".

The Cerebral Girl is a forty-something blogger just digging her way out from under a mountain of books in the deep south of Florida.This book was the November 2015 selection for the Cape Coral Bookies.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

A debut psychological thriller that will forever change the way you look at other people’s lives.

Rachel
takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down
the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at
the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting
on their deck. She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and
Jason,” she calls them. Their life—as she sees it—is perfect. Not
unlike the life she recently lost.

And then she sees something
shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough.
Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers
what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what
happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done
more harm than good?

Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.

Rachel is a lonely divorced alcoholic who rides the train to and from work everyday, and who has become familiar with a couple that she regularly passes on her ride. She's made up lives for the couple, given them names, and feels as if she knows them. One day she sees something, and later learns that the woman she's watched every day has been reported missing. Rachel finds herself enmeshed in the drama surrounding the disappearance of Megan (the real name of the woman she's been watching from the train), while having things further complicated by her raw emotions regarding her ex-husband Tom and his new wife Anna.

She’s a cuckoo, laying her eggs in my nest.

Since separating from her husband, Rachel has been living with Cathy, and things are wearing thin for both of them.

Cathy’s a nice person, in a forceful sort of way. She makes you notice her niceness. Her niceness is writ large, it is her defining quality and she needs it acknowledged, often, daily almost, which can be tiring.

Suffice to say, things get very complicated.

My final word: A little reminiscent of Gone Girl, with varying narratives and perspectives, it has some twists and turns that keep you guessing. You think you know what's happening, but then a twist is thrown in and you realize maybe you were wrong. And as with Gone Girl, I didn't find any of the characters very likable. They were all self-absorbed and annoying. So...it was okay...pretty good. I don't quite understand what all of the hullabaloo was, but it was okay. It was a pretty good mystery, keeping you guessing, and very readable.

Thursday, December 17, 2015

A novel based
on a true story, a mother and daughter risk their lives to provide
shelter to two families and a German soldier--all unbeknownst to each
other--in a tiny two-room house in Sokal, Poland, during the Nazi
invasion.

Based on a true story, MY MOTHER'S SECRET is
a profound, captivating, and ultimately uplifting tale intertwining the
lives of two Jewish families in hiding from the Nazis, a fleeing German
soldier, and the clever and "righteous" mother and daughter who teamed
up to save them.

Franciszka and her daughter, Helena, are
unlikely heroines. They are simple people who mind their own business
and don't stand out from the crowd. Until 1939, when crisis strikes. The
Nazis have invaded Poland and they are starting to persecute the Jews.
Providing shelter to a Jew has become a death sentence. And yet,
Franciszka and Helena decide to do just that. In their tiny, two-bedroom
home in Sokal, Poland, they cleverly hide a Jewish family of two
brothers and their wives in their pigsty out back, a Jewish doctor with
his wife and son in a makeshift cellar under the kitchen floorboards,
and a defecting German soldier in the attic--each group completely
unbeknownst to the others. For everyone to survive, Franciszka will have
to outsmart her neighbors and the German commanders standing guard
right outside her yard.

Told simply and succinctly from four
different perspectives, MY MOTHER'S SECRET is a reminder that there
are, in fact, no profiles of courage and each individual's character is a
personal choice.

This book was inspired by the true story of
Franciszka Halamajowa, who, with her daughter, saved the lives of
fifteen Jews in Poland during the Second World War. She also hid a young
German soldier in her attic at the same time. Before the war, there
were six thousand Jews in Sokal, Poland. Only thirty survived the war
and half of those did so because of Franciszka.

When you're a child, you think that your parents are the same as everyone else's and that what happens in your home happens in other people's homes too. You have no way of knowing any differently.

This story begins in Germany, where the family lives with their overbearing and at times abusive father who becomes a Nazi sympathizer. Francisizka is a compassionate, resourceful, and strong woman. She puts her children first, which is why she leaves her husband and takes her children Helena and Damian back to Poland.

Helena is a good daughter, she gets a job as a secretary at a garment factory to help out with the family, and falls in love with her boss Casmir.

Damian gets a job at an oil refinery, where he excels. As a valued laborer, the military leaves him alone as it builds an army to purge Poland of those individuals of Jewish heritage.

Being who she is, Franciszka cannot turn away those in need, and she winds up hiding a number of people throughout the war, risking her own life and that of her children. As stated in the books' epilogue by the author:

Before
the war, there were six thousand Jews in Sokal, Poland. Only thirty
survived the war and half of those because of one Polish woman,
Franciszka.

My final word: This was an easy, fast read. It is inspired by true events, and the real Franciszka Halamajowa, "who with her daughter saved the lives of fifteen Jews in Poland and during the Second World War. She also hid a young German soldier in her attic at the same time." The book feels authentic. You can imagine that this is what it was like for these people, and it is a great tribute to both those who survived and those who died during the war and an attempted eradication. For those seeking to learn more of Holocaust experience, this is a fine semi-fictional exploration.

The Cerebral Girl is a forty-something blogger just digging her way out from under a mountain of books in the deep south of Florida.I received a copy of this book to review through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers, in exchange for my honest opinion. I was not financially compensated in any way, and the opinions expressed are my own and based on my observations while reading this novel. The book that I received was an uncorrected proof, and quotes could differ from the final release.